Fabulous Blog Ribbon

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Thank you, Cheryl Fassett, fellow blogger and writer extraordinaire, for honoring me with a Fabulous Blog Ribbon. After a mixed summer of highs and lows, you made my entry to fall, my favorite season, a grander one.

Check out her blog Catching Fireflies where she captures creativity, magic and inspiration.

I’m a little late thanking Cheryl due to a cracked rib. I had no idea they hurt so much and could slow me down to half speed. But being recognized by one of my favorite bloggers is enough to sprinkle fairy dust over my writer’s world.

For those unfamiliar with blog awards, they come with a set of “rules,” but I would rather call them guidelines and give out awards without asking for anything back, in this case answering questions and passing the award to five fellow bloggers.

Call me conflicted, but sometimes these things remind me of a chain letter when they’re actually meant to help bloggers expand readership and feel good about the time and energy they put into their blogs. I know what it takes to keep up a blog, keep up with life, and keep up with other people's postings, and therefore I am reluctant to add one more “to do” to the list of these extraordinary bloggers. I hope you visit their pages to see why I love them so much.

Here are the guidelines for receiving this Fabulous Blog Ribbon:
  1. Thank the blogger who gave it to you and share the link back to the awarding blog.
  2. Name 5 fabulous moments in your life.
  3. Name 5 things that you love.
  4. Name 5 things you hate.
  5. Pass the award to 5 deserving bloggers.

So, without further ado…

Five Fabulous Moments in My Life

• The birth of my son, Jason
• Finding my sweetheart, Dan, and being with him for 36 years
• Discovering my life as a writer—over and over and over again
• Being in Paris the first time
• Seeing Fleetwood Mac in concert for the first time

Five Seven Things I Love

• My friends and family, with all my heart
• Writing, writing, writing
• Paris
• Books by my favorite authors and discovering new ones
• Music, mostly rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, funk, French pop, folk
• Dancing
• Art in all forms

Five Things I Hate

• Crazymakers
• The word hate
• War
• Dishonesty and greed
• Not giving art & culture in our society and government programs the recognition it deserves

Five Bloggers Who Deserve a Fabulous Blog Ribbon*

• Barbara Sullivan for her extraordinary wisdom and big heart in The Solace of LoweredExpectations
• Kirsten Steen and her exquisite blog Write-on-Thyme for keeping me in touch with our beloved Paris (plus having such gorgeous music on her blog, too!)
• New to the blogosphere in March, Karla Droste with open heart and adventurous spirit takes us on her life-changing journey in Re-inventing Karla
• DianeProkop keeps my reading pile high, not just in height, but in the quality of her book reviews and recommendations
• Supremely gifted artist and creative, Beth I. Robinson, who keeps me laughing and gives me the gift of being inside the head of a working artist (p.s. check out one of my favorite pieces of hers at her website)

* Ribbon recipients: please accept this Fabulous Blog Ribbon, enjoy freely, post the ribbon, know that I give this ribbon to you with no expectation of you having to do anything more than enjoy it for all the hard work you put into your blog.

As for something to entertain you further, I offer this bit of writerly eroticism:

Thanks for tuning in!

And yes, for those who asked, my cracked rib is healing nicely. Thanks for being concerned!

Keep creativity in your heart and soul,

Val

COMING UP:

Where I Work: a photographic peek into my writing spaces

A Confession: What happened after my six readers responded to the Beta version of my novel

Every Picture Tells a Story

Ah, Stalwart Followers!

            You’ll likely want to flog me, but I veer off course again. Here’s the drift:

            This very mornin’, while readin’ over my latest Captain’s Log, I see I here promised a photo gallery escapade, the Key West sail with the proper English relatives.

What in Hades are you doin’? I say to meself. This isn’t Facebook, you dunce! This is about your writin’ life, you fish fodder.

            Aye, I could argue all is fodder for a writer, even the English relatives. But nay, this weren’t one of those times. I’d let me cutlass down, been caught in the moment of the fun, the partying, the being away from the desk and writin’. Am I daft for wantin’ more play?

            Returnin’ to the ship called home, I was, however, ready to write, thank Neptune! Bein’ self-employed, I had a few awaitin’ and a new one to boot. Late I was in approachin’ the blog, but I had greadily readied myself for the visuals of photos. Now I was going on gobsmacked. How the heck could I switch direction, again? Was I driving my readers crazy? Would they join me as I hopped like a frog from one lily pad to another? And where the bloody hell is that interview with Jessica Maxwell you may be asking? Ah, mateys, scheduling conflicts, and I won’t do an email interview. Live ones give the unexpected and are dammed good interesting. So stay on board!

            Aye, I could beg forgiveness, but you’re a good lot, and I expect I’m not the first to disappoint. Instead of floggin’ myself, I’ll move the bloody photos to FB.  Could it be simpler?

            But where to go, messmates?

            I sit, thump me head, drum fingers, drink tea. Check me last blog again.

            There I find the latest comment and sail over to Kirsten’s blogship.           

            A twinge! My gut’s a flutter. She’s followin’ “A Thousand Hands Clapping.” I do not know this ship, but I take a look. And blimey! Lookee what I find—

 

            E’er was this synchronicity squared? I write to Catherine, captain of the blogship and congratulate her on her first movie/slideshow. Watchin’ it, reminds me of the photos I’ve taken, and a thematic tide surges through me. Like a ship, a floating bit of wood and canvas upon the sea that contains all a buccaneer needs, these photos squeeze much into little, something I call artistry from confinement.

            Oh, me buckos! Visual arts feeds me. In Florida, I watched no movies, so stimulation came from the unexpected and humorous. Whether sailing to Key West with my brother or afterwards trawling South Beach with my sister, I looked for objects that that tell a story. That’s why we take photos—to remember our stories, to create our stories. As a storyteller, I try to find photos that speak to me. Here be a few. Imagine what they say, what stories they tell. What stories you spin from them.

            I know not how these “found objects” will surface in my writing. I’m followin’ this line of thinkin’, fellow seamen and women, ‘cause it has to do with “feeding the creative beast.” Or should I say “chumming the waters?” Perhaps, as in dreams, I am both the beast that I’m feeding and the feeder of said beast. As a writer, I don’t dismiss any of this crazy wandering of the mind. Not all needs to be purposefully followed. Like day dreamin’. If it surfaces, I pay attention or perish. It is, as one of my late compatriots at Hedgebrook Writers Colony said, all grist for the mill.

            And I think I’ll clatter on with this very same subject next week with more about “found objects” as a jumping off place for writers. Nay, this isn’t about catching ideas for a story like so many fish, but more about stimulatin’ the creative glands or filling the creative stomach. We need nourishment, all of us. Writers sometimes find it in the mundane, sometimes in the mysterious. It’s all part of the process.

And if you understand any of this prattle, if any of the photos strikes a story in you, join this blog with a comment. The wilder, the better.

All my duty to you,

Captain Val

"A Thousand Clapping Hands" blog can be found here:

http://athousandclappinghands.blogspot.com/

Coming Up! (I hear ya laughin’, you scallywags!)

“Found Objects: a Launch for Creative Storytelling”

"The Fountain of Creative Ideas, or Why My Resume Wouldn't Land Me a Normal Job"

"Platform, Flatform"

"A View of My Writers Room Wall: What Inspires Me"

... and soon an interview with Jessica Maxwell of Roll Around Heaven